OR, HOW THINGS KEEP GETTING WEIRDER AT NIGHT. EXCUSE MY RAMBLING ANECDOTES!
I really need to get a grip. At first I was worrying and whining on about not getting enough sleep then suddenly I’m plunging into the abyss with less and less help from medicine after doing my ritual changing of rooms when I have a bad streak sleep-wise.
Let me explain. Since being a child I have slept poorly and it has always been something I fret about as soon as I hit the hay. It’s vile and only bad sleepers understand the hideous anxiety that goes with. For example I have always freaked out on Sunday nights due to the pre Monday school blues and well, hysteria. This has continued into adulthood and beyond. However, don’t believe it’s the only day of the week I can froth at the mouth, any day of the week will do, regarding as to whether I’ll be able to sleep at all.
I’ve done all the correct things they bang on about. The darkening of the room is vital and I’ve made blackout blinds so snug that it makes the room fell like it doesn’t exist even and that I might have gone blind. The not watching TV (or any blue screen two hours before estimated sleep time) I don’t have a TV anywhere in the house let alone the bedroom so I don’t make that mistake as I turn everything off two hours ahead. I turn off the Wi-Fi on my phone after around seven and just read books afterwards to not over excite myself. I try not to drink anything after six and then only herbal tea (not even cocoa it has caffeine in it!) I go under my infrared lamp for a session which is by the bed. I turn the lights out between nine and ten putting on my audiobook very quietly and on its slowest speed with someone whose voice doesn’t irritate me. I then shuffle about finally resting on my left side to sleep. Well that doesn’t necessarily work but at least I’m trying. If i need, I take a sedative on bad nights and at least half a Sleepeeze. This can temporarily sort it but it doesn’t mean that I won’t wake in the early hours for wees or just because, and then crippled by the worry of it not be able to ‘drop off’ again until the cock crows. Am I rambling?
I’m even superstitious about the sheets. If I’ve slept reasonably for a few nights I can’t change the bed linen or it will break the magic. It’s true, I’ve found out before that little trick when you think all is well you put on fresh bedding and have a hot bath eagerly coming to what you expect to be a magnificent kip only to be totally incapable of even closing your eyes. Your fresh lavender aroma and crisp sheets has in fact upset your mindset of smelly, grubby nest is good for sleep and clean and fresh means relearning the dangers of your environment. Your body clearly wants those safe pheromones back so as not be on guard. It’s catch 22 for you. You must be a grubby little woodland creature not a fresh clean one in a newly built nest.
So if the grubby sheet magic stops working it’s the emergency last resort, the total change of environment much like when I travel , a change is as good as a rest ha ha!
Now it’s time for the next step, your change of room. This is very make or break I confess but it does seem to have done the trick a couple of times so I decided that I would try it this week as I have become fretful and anxious again, so my sons smaller darker warmer nest felt a good call. Well it has been; kinda good. If you like mad lucid dreams creeping up on you.
LUCID DREAMING
Here we go.
A lot has been written about these bad boys but let me quote you some initial AI reference.
“Historical & cultural context: The phenomenon has been documented for centuries—Aristotle noted dream awareness, Tibetan Buddhists practiced Dream Yoga, and Hindu traditions include Yoga Nidra. Modern scientific study began in the 20th century, with Frederik van Eeden coining the term in 1913 and Stephen LaBerge pioneering experimental research at Stanford University, including proving lucid dreams could be signaled via eye movements during REM sleep. “
“Key facts:
- About 55% of people have had at least one lucid dream in their lifetime, with 20% experiencing them monthly.
- It is considered a trainable skill, with techniques like Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD), reality checks (e.g., checking clocks or trying to push a finger through the palm), and wake-back-to-bed methods helping beginners.
- Research suggests neural activity in the prefrontal and parietal lobes—regions linked to self-awareness and decision-making—increases during lucid dreams, supporting metacognition (awareness of one’s own thoughts).
- Potential benefits include enhanced problem-solving, overcoming nightmares, emotional processing, and creative exploration. Some studies link frequent lucid dreaming to improved brain connectivity related to goal achievement and social cognition.
- Cautions: Overly aggressive pursuit may disrupt sleep quality or cause confusion between dream and reality in rare cases.”
In other words it’s cool if you can but it does also want practise and also as the last bullet point mentions……..
Because I’m a masochist I read about and started practising a spiritual technique where you can control your dream landscape and start creating manifestations of what you wish for becoming reality. This was going very well for a patch when I was sleeping better and was mastering being aware that I was dreaming and manipulating my dreams. I felt smug about it (never a good idea) and had got to a point where I could redo bits of the dream that displeased me and create anew. With this I even added levitation as I swept down staircases and landed neatly at the bottom just above the ground and then sink down. It was going spiffingly until some stress re-entered my life and pouf! It all disappeared and I was lucky if I even had a dreamless forty winks a night let alone be master of my dream universe.
Enter new room. It went extremely well at first, the first night having a deep dreamless catch-up sleep. However the last three nights it’s gone rather overboard on the old dreaming side. The second night I had dreams of chaos and a strange force seemed to have taken over and was trying to show me strange mechanisms. I had wandered into some lucid dreams but wasn’t in control. That’s not good.
Now this was the fleeting, shrug it off type of thing where you can’t quite remember what actually happened but during the course of the day a blinding near grasping of the long tortuous dream that I had slipped ephemerally away from me. It was infuriating and alarming. I didn’t feel in control of this new entity at all, for entity it did indeed feel like. I was uneasy that I had woken some strange force that was trying to tell me something that I was too obtuse to recognise.
The following night was more or less the same except for waking three times for a wee which was irritating but I fell asleep immediately after which was a blessing at least. Like this I had no lucidity just random lost dreams that evaporated the next day in an exasperating way. I was definitely starting to creep myself out a little I needed to grab the reins. I initially had just wanted to break my no sleep cycle now I was wanting more.
Last night however was bingo, I mean it went well not actual bingo. I did take the reins to some degree. I started by entering a room of people who were there to inform on others.(bear with me it’s hard to explain!) It wasn’t malicious but rather sad and after events of some kind of hardship that these different frail men and women talked to a military general of some kind. He was made to be kind but to listen to me! There were a lot of stuffed toys had the secrets inside and were taken to explain various mysterious stories. Now I admit that I was enjoying these tales and indeed changing them a bit if they got too dull and would tell the general what to do to rectify the problems. I liked this a lot and clearly it was about being in control of the dialogue rather than the authoritarian figure that I had magicked up. Then interruption one, I woke for a wee.
After wee one I went straight back where I left off except now my friend came in with a stuffed, small Egyptian looking crocodile that had lines of spice seeds stuck on for decoration. This was intriguing but rather a hasty addition to the content clearly I didn’t deem it important as I wanted to fly and fly I did, off to a cityscape with metallic sheen all over and then I was clambering up onto broken walls searching for my medical appointment in the rather chaotic city. I really don’t understand what the hell was going on but I looked around and that was it. Having found the place I abandoned it to go to another that an elegant count in his finery had told me was more interesting. I floated by him and then floated vertically down telling him as I passed “Now that’s being a count, counting down to landing” It was terribly witty in the dream but doesn’t really hack it outside. Then my bladder got me again. Wee two.
After the second interruption I rather struggled climbing back into my bed, the sheets and covers had become very tangled . At that point I sleepily heard a little of my audio book and noted that a lead male had got to an idyllic rural part of the peasants gathering the hay and their food and beer being partaken after a mornings work. This clearly got me out of city to mellow green fields and a less intricate story line more of a going back to nature and leisurely pursuits in no actual body at all. I was just the air that blew and was happy to leave it to go into a dreamless entity. This is the only way I can explain this last phase. It did dawn on me that I had in fact been led earlier and actually absorbed some of the dramatic tale into my dream; the count I had seen was obviously Count Bronsky from the previous chapter!
I woke rather tired and twisted up in my now very chaotic sheets and quilts but at the same time satisfied and rested. I had had a night of control of my dreams albeit not a proper sleep though thanks to drinking so many cups of tea the previous day dammit. However my swap seems to have broken the bad sleep cycle. I’ve even managed to get lucid dreaming back on the boil. I just need to find my dream journal (yes I have a dream journal, I try to have journals or at least lists for most things!)
I’ll have tonight there again before going back to my room again, it is Sunday night after all. I’m bound to be jumpy. I’ll keep you posted once I’m back in my princess bed again, although it does have those damn clean sheets
Old Bird Travels Solo! 